Take it from the professionals: Dusting your self with the most effective setting powders is a non-negotiable for long-lasting make-up, particularly as summer season nears and heat and humidity can soften your make-up in report time. Just a few pats or swipes of free or pressed powder assist preserve every part in place, tamp down excess oil, and blur the look of pores and effective traces. Even should you choose a dewier look, there are ultra-translucent formulation that preserve shine in test with out getting in the way in which of your pure glow. Whether or not you go full-beat or preserve issues minimal, there’s a powder to match your vibe, pores and skin tone, and texture preferences. Editors and make-up artists crammed us in on their favorites, so you possibly can skip straight to the standouts and hit checkout, stat.
Our High Setting Powders
Continuously Requested Questions
Finest Total: Laura Mercier Translucent Unfastened Setting Powder
Why it is value it: The Laura Mercier Translucent Unfastened Setting Powder has been a make-up artist mainstay for over a decade. Bicoastal make-up artist Emily Cheng, first used the powder 15 years in the past and has been fangirling ever since. “It is easy, primary, foolproof, and does the job,” Cheng says. Bicoastal make-up artist Kirin Bhatty agrees, calling it “nice for focused shine, in addition to an total dusting to complete a glance.” Along with the mattifying magic, you’ll get a pleasant dose of skin-loving substances like vitamins C and E, plus a mix of blurring, oil-absorbing botanicals.
Regardless of solely coming in 4 shades, this powder has achieved icon standing as a result of, in contrast to a few of its friends, it is truly translucent, permitting it to put on fantastically on a variety of pores and skin tones.
“I’ve all the time had bother with creasing underneath my eyes, however this Laura Mercier setting powder smooths every part out and provides me that brilliant, awake look I like. It doesn’t give any flashback in photographs—which is large for me—and it really works on all pores and skin tones, which makes it even higher.”
Kind: free
Key substances: nutritional vitamins C and E, botanical mix
Shades: 4
End: matte
Finest for Pimples-Inclined Pores and skin: Nars Reflecting Pressed Setting Powder
Why it is value it: “I’ll ceaselessly love Nars Reflecting Pressed Setting Powder,” says Bhatty. “It’s good on all tones and units the pores and skin in such a wonderful approach.” Pores and skin nonetheless appears to be like like pores and skin, however minus the shine, she provides. This is a superb choice for individuals with acne-prone pores and skin for its light-weight really feel, nonacnegenic formulation, and inclusion of vitamin E and glycerin to fend off dryness. It is available in 4 shades—the intense white Crystal (for gentle to medium complexions), Shore (for true medium complexions), Mesa (for medium-deep complexions), and Sable (for deep to very deep complexions). The fitting shade will look invisible atop your make-up, diffusing gentle, nixing shine, and serving to you get probably the most out of your merchandise.
Tester suggestions from contributing editor Deanna Pai
“My naturally oily pores and skin appears to be like shiny by mid-morning, however I’ve by no means dedicated to setting powder, since I felt they made my pores and skin look dusty, for lack of a greater phrase. That is the one one I ever put on, because it looks like nothing (a should for the acne-prone!) and creates a soft-focus impact, relatively than sapping all of the life and dewiness from my pores and skin. Although it is available in 4 shades, the translucent model (meant for pale pores and skin tones) nonetheless works simply as effectively for my medium-tan pores and skin.”
Kind: pressed
Key substances: vitamin E, glycerin
Shades: 4
End: radiant
Finest Pressed: Charlotte Tilbury Airbrush Flawless End Setting Powder
Why it is value it: For a second-skin impact, make-up artist Rommy Najor reaches for Charlotte Tilbury’s Airbrush Flawless End. “It is light-weight and hugs the pores and skin,” he explains, including that it’s principally undetectable. For a similar motive, make-up artist Vincent Oquendo calls it his favourite pressed powder. “It is not talc-y or chalky, and would not overwhelm the pores and skin.” The formulation brightens because it units, and is spiked with vitamin E-rich almond oil and rose wax for a contact of nourishment, plus pearlescent mica so as to add slightly gleam to the in any other case pure end. Apply the powder round your nostril, T-zone, and every other oily areas vulnerable to flashback.
Tester suggestions from commerce editor Sarah Han
“I am unable to be bothered to cope with free powders due to the inevitable mess (whether or not I am at dwelling or touring, TBH). I like how pure of a end this Charlotte Tilbury pressed powder supplies—like a soft-blurring veil that does not completely negate my glow. (Thanks, light-reflecting particles!) To that time, it isn’t my decide for the mattest-of-matte powders, however I am a-ok with that. I put on the shade 2 Medium, which I discover enhances my basis and concealers completely with out washing my Asian pores and skin tone out (as I presume Mild would).”
Kind: pressed
Key substances: almond oil, rose wax
Shades: 6
End: matte
Finest for Touchups: Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Pressed Powder
Why it is value it: The Hourglass Vanish Airbrush Pressed Powder has secured a spot in lots of an Attract editor’s make-up bag for its sheer, buildable protection and light-weight really feel. The powder dusts delicately onto pores and skin to soak up extra oil with out minimizing your pores and skin’s pure glow or including undesirable glitter. For the reason that formulation is so ethereal and gained’t go away a white forged, be at liberty to go all in with layering. All 5 hues are adaptable and work effectively to brighten the excessive factors of your face along with mattifying shine. The packaging is so fairly but additionally serves a objective: The deep chamber retains the powder from spilling or making undesirable messes.
Tester suggestions from commerce producer Sarah Hoffmann
“My pores and skin runs on the oily aspect, so at a sure level, I accepted that regardless of how glowy I choose to be, if I would like my make-up to outlive the day, I would like slightly dusting of powder round my T-zone and brow. I carry this mini compact of pressed powder round in my bag, and it actually saves the day when my make-up begins to slide and slide. It is not totally mattifying, so your pores and skin nonetheless appears to be like luminous and pure whereas sporting it, but it surely helps convey me again to dewy once I’m teetering on the sting of full-on greasy. I like the powder puff it comes with in a pinch, however once I need an much more invisible end, I am going to evenly roll on a layer of powder utilizing a pointed fluffy brush, and nobody’s the wiser.”
Kind: free
Key substances: mica
Shades: 3
End: pure
Finest Brightening: Tarte Creaseless Setting & Brightening Powder
Why it is value it: Amazonian clay stars in Tarte’s Creaseless Setting and Brightening Powder, absorbing extra oil and chopping down on shine with out feeling drying or trying cakey. The included triangular puff helps goal the slippery nooks and crannies of your face (oily undereyes, anybody?) and retains sweat from shifting round your make-up for as much as 16 hours. A broad spectrum of shades seals the deal, starting from a white translucent hue to a deep espresso hue that also reads as translucent as soon as it is on the pores and skin. There are additionally pink and lavender shades’ that work wonders for brightening darkish circles.
Tester suggestions from contributing commerce author Annie Blackman
“I used to be stunned by how effectively this powder’s pink hue complemented my pores and skin. It blends proper in, sits with out smothering, and legitimately brightens. I additionally respect how safe the packaging is. There are principally two completely different lids that make sure the powder would not spill all over the place. I like utilizing the triangle puff to get underneath my eyes and a fluffier, greater brush for all-over dusting.”
Kind: free
Key substances: Amazonian clay
Shades: 9
End: brightening
Different setting powders to contemplate
Continuously Requested Questions
What’s setting powder, and what does it do?
Setting powders are used on prime of base make-up like concealer, basis, or blush to make sure it will not budge, crease, or develop an oily sheen all through the day. “Setting your make-up is without doubt one of the most necessary steps of your routine,” New York Metropolis-based make-up artist Delina Medhin tells Attract. “If you set the make-up, it has longevity as a result of who desires to hold a touch-up equipment all over the place?”
Nevertheless, oil absorption and longevity aren’t the one issues setting powders are good for, in keeping with New York Metropolis-based make-up artist Tommy Napoli. “Setting powder is just not solely used to lock in your make-up however to ‘end’ the look of make-up—to create a smoother, extra poreless, and texture-less floor,” he explains.
Setting powder vs setting spray: what is the distinction?
Each setting powder and setting spray prolong the longevity of your completed look, however setting powders and setting sprays perform in another way. Whereas the previous minimizes the look of pores and extra oil, the latter acts extra like a movie in your pores and skin. Setting sprays are the equal of cling wrap in your make-up and normally include a mix of water, alcohol, and a film-former to create a barrier and seal your cosmetics in place.
Our favourite setting sprays:
Methods to apply a setting powder
Even should you choose dewy appears to be like (courtesy of BB creams or skin tints), setting powder utilized strategically—within the T-zone, for instance—can take up extra oil and preserve merchandise in place longer, in keeping with Medhin. The make-up artists we spoke to agree that, whether or not you have got oily skin or dry skin, the less-is-more strategy works greatest with powders. “This provides you extra management of the product,” Medhin says. “Place your brush within the powder, then faucet it off till it appears to be like like nothing is left, then preserve making use of till you get to your required matte look.” Tommy provides face powder to the brow, nostril, chin, and sides of the mouth to “assist to mitigate any extra shine or oil breakthrough that may result in a porous look.”
How we take a look at and overview merchandise
When Attract tests a product, our editors take a look at it from each angle in an effort to greatest serve you. We overview substances, scrutinize model claims, and, when essential, study peer-reviewed scientific and medical research. Along with testing each product that’s included in each overview, we depend on specialists who form their fields, together with dermatology, beauty chemistry, and medication, to assist us vet the ingredients and formulation.
For our record of the very best setting powders, we thought-about every product’s efficiency throughout 5 main classes: product substances and efficacy, packaging, perfume, texture, and product put on. Each product was decided to have excelled in every class by our editorial group, which consists of in-house writers and editors in addition to contributors—together with particular consideration from make-up artists. To be taught extra info on our reporting and testing processes, learn our full reviews process and methodology page.
Our workers and testers
A magnificence product is a private buy. You is likely to be looking for a face cream to handle persistent dryness or a brand new nail product so as to add to your Sunday self-care routine; you could merely be searching round for the newest launches to hit the hair market. It doesn’t matter what you search or your particular person wants and considerations, Attract desires to make sure that you like something we suggest in our tales. We imagine that having a various group of writers and editors—along with the wide selection of outdoor testers and business specialists we recurrently name upon—is important to reaching that objective.
